Hi everybody,
Im currently 2 weeks into my 1st organic grow and might be having problems.
About 4 days ago i stopped using my envirolight coz of spread issues so i put my plants under my air cooled 600w hps (gro lux bulb), not ideal i know but beter than the 125w cfl. They were a couple of inchs tall and just gettin there 3rd set of leaves, i set the bulb about 26 inches above the plants but they seemed to wilt slightly so i moved it up to 36 inches (3ft).
The plants seem to be growing fast and theres no stretch but the wilting seems to be getting worse, a couple of them look a bit stressed and are getting some brown spots on the lower leaves. i have them on just water at the moment so its not nutes, and its not all the plants yet so i dont think its the all mix.
The humidity has gone from 50 down to about 35 at lights on, and it rises to about 45 with lights off, it has gone down since using the air cooled lamp because the extraction is always on now but can 35 humidity cause me problems at this stage. The plants are just about to enter the veg stage as they are producing good foilage growth.

does anybody know what it could be, is it humidity, or is the light still to close at 3ft? Im getting nervous!!

and i have put a bucket of water in, a full jug and watering can but this does not alter humidity at all because of the fan/filter sucking the air out!!

do i need to slow fan down at this young stage?

could misting the plants help? i tryed it a bit yesterday but that could be reason for the few brown spots on a couple of my plants i thought.

oh yeh my temps are 25-27c through the day and 20c at nights so i dont think its that.

hello m8

i suffer from low humidity in my drobe and i have bought a fogger/humidifier from argos. It works a treat and has upped my humidity from 25% to 50%. I have noticed that plants grow much better with higher humidity especialy when they are seedling/young plant stage.

Try add a damp towel to your grow area to up the humidity as a temp fix

I never noticed my plants wilting due to low humidity just wrinkled/dryish leaves.

are they hungry? is it time to pot up?? I always pot up every 2 weeks

Are you sure you are not overwatering?

hi scoob, thanks for your help again m8.

The wet towel hasnt even altered it at all, think the air is replaced before it has time to. I was just looking at them humidifiers in argos, i am going to go and get one today. Do i want a cold mist one or a warm mist one?

The leaves are a bit dry and wrinkled, its not major but would like to stop it before i hit some problems.

I repotted from rootcubes to 15 cm pots 4 days ago and there is just a couple of roots showing out the drainage holes on a few of the plants but i dont think they need repotting just yet, i could be wrong though!!

I am currently watering them every 2-3 days with just plain water with a ph of about 6.7. I let the top of the medium dry out slightly on top then i water them until they start to drip water out of the bottom. I am fairly new to this so it could be that i am over/under feeding them but i wasnt planning on giving any nutes for a few weeks due to the all mix being quite hot.

If the humidifier doesnt work i will make the light higher but 3 foot is quite alot anyway i thought and im scared of the stretch!! Did the humidifier sort out your problem scoob, could you plz tell me the name and price of the 1 you purchased.

Thanks.

Argos Challenge 3.5 Litre Ultrasonic Humidifier.
425/0344 £24.99
Doesnt sound like you need to pot up ,, but do you think maybe the allmix is having this effect on them? I have never used it myself


i never had much of a problem to sort out (just noticed humidity was lower than recomended), the only thing i noticed with the plants was dryish/wrinkly leaves,, maybe i caught it in time.. im not sure what adverse effects prolonged low humidity can have.

if you are still running into bother maybe start a new thread in sick plants and put some pics up

ps. if you find that the allmix is too strong try mixing it with some cutting/seedling compost to make it weaker

good luck

scoob

got a pic of the plants. that kind of humidity shouldn't cause any kind of wilting. are you sure you're not overwatering?

Thanks for that scoob, helpful as always. Went to argos and sold out of the 24.99 one so if they dont stock up tomorrow i will try the one for 44.99, im not so sure now thats the problem but it would still be nice to have it around the steady 50 mark.

All the info i can gather, and the pictures ive compared to my plants to all point to overwatering. Theyre to young to lie yet so it must be me.

A lot of them have picked up a bit today, just 3 look a bit unhappy now and the rest have stretched slightly whilst ive been out, so i lowered the light 2 inches. So that rules the light out too because surely if they didnt like the light they wouldnt be reaching for it today.

Thanks for your help also scraglor, i have no camera so cant put pics up as yet, but will shortly get one. I think you could be right about the over watering, i didnt think it was but it must be so i will start leaving them for longer between feeds and keep my eye on them. The medium seems to dry quick on top so maybe im a bit eager to stop them from drying out. Last night i watered them and they are already slightly dry on the top so i would usually water them tommorrow night or the next morning. Do u think thats to much for the plants, they are sat in 15cm pots?

Does anybody use a moisture meter and is it worth me getting one, also will it help me or are they no good?

lift each pot if it feels light water it

yeah, too much i'd say, you need to let the compost "almost" dry out between waterings, especially when they're small and the roots don't fill the pot. fill a pot with bone dry compost, and pick it up, then give it a good watering, and you wanna aim for about 30% of the difference left in weight before watering again (this obviously changes as the plants get bigger and have a lot more weight to them, but when small, is a fair approximation). if that makes sense? basically the soil should be dry, but not so dry leaves are starting to droop from dryness, if the pot still feels quite weighty, give a while longer, eventually it just becomes automatic.... and yeah, sorry, i know it seems a bit vague, but it's best i can do at this time of night

Wouldn't bother.Poke your finger in and lift pots to gauge moisture level.With practice you will start to suss out when they need water.

I have not been in soil for a while except for mothers but I always let em get pretty dry before watering em again. A good rule of thumb that always worked for me was to only give em as much water as they would use in three days. I.e after three days they should feel light when you lift pots but not be wilting from thirst. Everyone has their own way of watering but this has served me well.

Having plants too wet all the time doesn't allow oxygen for roots. They will thank you for letting em dry out I think.Don't be afraid of letting em get too dry-once they arent wilting from thirst they are ok imo. Drying out encourages plant to develop roots to look for moisture some say.

They will always dry out on top pretty quick unless humidity is super high. Stick your finger in a few inches and you will get a better idea.

Don't stress about it. They are resiliant plants and you will get the hang.

Peace
Papa.

Thanks for your help everybody in this post, helped me out a lot has this.

Everything has been taken on board, steep learning curve i think. Will definately be lettin them dry out a bit more!! When i say i water until it starts to drip out the bottom slightly, is this right or is it to much you think? I have followed that just because of the books ive been reading.

Ps. The 7 paradise white berry are really healthy now, the 3 that arnt as nice are all DNA strains, so maybe theyre not as genetically sound as the paradise!

In my experience whether this is right or wrong depends on soil drainage, humidity/temp and size of plants/pots. A lot of variables obviously.

This is why I use the three day dry out rule. Big plants in small pots in high temps and low humidity will need to be really saturated.Lots of water running out bottom.They will drink it all in three days or less.

Small plants in biggish pots in lower temps and higher humidity will need only enough water to moisten all the soil every three days.

This is just a way that works for me and others do it differently.I have had good results using it though.

Overall I would prefer to see plants wilting ever so slightly from thirst(they soon recover) after a few days than to see them overwatered. Again just my personal opinion.

You will soon find a method that suits you with practice and observation.


In my opinion a lot of the books available should be treated with caution. They tend to repeat things written in the 70s when our science was in its infancy and since disproven. A lot of them are just paraphrasing the books that came before them and I sometimes think that their authors have never grown a plant.Books are ok for basic info but sites like UK420 is where the real knowledge lies in my opinion.

Peace
Papa.

Thanks for taking the time papa its really helpful and shall giv it a try myself, hopefully pick it up over time.

Right about the site to, learned a lot more off here than any of the books ive read!

Thanks again.

Hi Mate,

How did your argos humidifiers go? I'm thinking about getting one myself but don't really want to fork out for the imndustrial ones from the grow shops. My air output is 600m3 per hour though so not sure if one of the smaller ones would make any difference?

This is a really bad idea mate, having standing water in your grow room will only encourage mould to develop. And you don't want mould.

Wilting is often caused by poor watering schedule, as has been mentioned.

Where are you extracting to and where is your fresh air coming from?

Plants like a regular watering regime if using soil. I know mine want X amount of liquid every X hours. They get this same time, same day schedule, every two days @ 9pm

IMO, when your plants are happy you can water them and they don't even curl after watering.

If they curl they are going to dry or being watered too often.

Agreed with PAPA, I let mine dry almost fully. I don't like to see wilt cause it slows growth for a few hours and thats a few grams less at the end. If the bottom leaves are a tad limp its time to water.

Also you can get the lamp closer if don't let them wilt at all.

if your bottoms leaves are going limp, that's too dry imo, leaves wilting even slightly, means water stress at your roots, and all the tiny micro hairs on the effected roots die